Final Post of Issues and Trends

Learning about the international early childhood field is difficult and creates consequences three that come to mind as I reached out and learned from my contacts were:

• 1.     The frustration with funding. The government supplies little funding to early learning programs where as internationally the focus on education and life long learning is different and of higher priority. Being able to fund programs and create higher quality programs is not as difficult with the finding coming through to the programs.
• 2.     Cost to the families. The burden of being able to afford high quality programs is difficult for families here in the United States. The ability to afford the high quality programs is not a reality for every family here and when they meet the standards of the middle class and are unable to get the assistance they are sometimes unable to attend the desired programs due to cost.
• 3.     The frustration created around the standards of required education of those teaching in the classroom. The educators in the classroom, as I have learned over the past eight weeks, are held to the standard of the teachers in the education system. Required degrees and trainings are not an option they are a requirement.

Continuing to educate individuals, policy makers and families on the importance of early learning is how I hope to lessen the academic gap. Being able to educate on the learning done in quality early learning programs through interactions, relationships as they are built, as well as the experiences through play are important to scaffold the proper learning for the future.  Educating and advocating for our little learners is how we will succeed in the early education field here in the United States.

http://childcareaware.org/families/paying-for-child-care/federal-state-child-care-programs/

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

This week was great being able to get to know my contacts even more. Being able to get a snapshot of them, as a professional seeing what they work to overcome each day is wonderful. Many of the struggles we face each day are the same as those around the world.

Sara discussed with me her dreams of becoming a larger part of the Nursery schools becoming a director of a large nursery school there she does work with. She discussed by working to attain a job in one given program she hopes to be able to create a positive early learning program for those in the community and be a part of it each day. This would reduce her commuting throughout training those in other nursery schools and allow her to focus.  The qualifications in England to work in the schools are a degree in early learning as well as experience in the field to be a main teacher.  In addition there are also many trainings and other various classes to routinely stay current with. Sara discussed the issue of getting people through the door with the qualifications and keeping them from leaving for primary school. The salary is more for those teachers commonly they loose those to primary school once they receive high enough credentials.

Saya discussed with me her hopes of becoming the flight chief of the Child and Youth Programs. Being able to be a large part of all the early learners as well as the school age up to eighteen year olds would be a wonderful accomplishment. Working with military people is rewarding however, she discussed the difficulty of maintaining enough workers to staff her program through constant movement. People to start in the classroom must at least have a high school diploma and must sign a paper stating they will complete required training modules by eighteen months of higher date or will be terminated. Saya discussed the difficulty of getting people to the target level and being able to then have them still there not ready for their next move. Overcoming the obstacles of being apart of an ever changing community is a way of life it is not a bad just difficult to keep quality providers.

Being able to hear from these two ladies has me again reflect on the importance of creating providers who are well rounded, passionate, well educated individuals. Being able to assist with this in the early learning community will continue to be a goal I work to.

 https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/early-years-teacher

Sharing Web Resources

An article this week that caught my eye was on the “Deserts” in child care. The article was on the inequity of supply and demand in the growing of quality care programs. Being able to allow children the ability to attend programs that are of high quality is becoming an increasing issue. The study put into place by Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 encourages the study and documentation of the progress being made to reduce the gaps of inequity of high quality, accessible care. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 stated about the findings that “it is paramount that states and communities understand how to study child care supply and demand, analyze the findings, identify areas of child care deserts, and implement solutions” (Dobbins, 2016). Continued research in the inequities in the early learning field will be the way to decrease the gaps and educate those in the field.

Head Start has been discussed frequently lately through their ability to provide quality care to the low income families in the community. However, it is a program until I began this journey to achieve my masters I knew very little about. On the site I found an insightful article on Head Start and the creation of Child Care Partnerships. The article discussed the funding and the services provided to the families the program services. The strong ties the program makes to the community intrigues me as I continue to learn about the program.

Full Report can be found at:

http://usa.childcareaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Child-Care-Deserts-report-FINAL2.pdf

Reference:

Dionne Dobbins, PhD Jessica Tercha, Michelle McCready, MPP Anita Liu. (2016). Child Care Deserts: Developing Solutions to Child Care Supply and Demand. Retrieved from http://usa.childcareaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Child-Care-Deserts-report-FINAL2.pdf

Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships. Retrieved from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ecd/early-learning/ehs-cc-partnerships.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

The inequity within the early learning is far vaster worldwide than I once believed. Conversations with Sara and Saya this week has highlighted the similar issues with inequity here in America. Poverty and the access to care is an issue of inequity worldwide.

Sara discussed the issues and excellence they experience in Europe. She discussed the importance of pre-primary school as a path to growth and excellence in academics in the later years. The battle she faces is not to show the importance to the government, but to the families how children benefit from these programs. Low income families commonly allow the mothers to school the children the education stemming from what the know. To fight the issue parents are encouraged to encourage training to the educators to show case the knowledge to the apprehensive families.

Saya pointed out the issue of health concerns in Italy. Southern Italy especially battles the poverty levels far more than northern. Being able to overcome the issues of keeping children healthy through prevention and wellness is a large issue. She identified many do not use the public early learning programs due to the issues with health and wellness. She did mention that the health and schooling are government funded and free to families. Saya is in the private sector her programs are not free nor funded by the Italian government, but by the Department of Defense.

Reflecting on the inequality worldwide I find the largest battle lies in the issue of poverty. Families battling poverty are not using the early learning programs along with families in the middle class that may struggle with the extra burden of child care. Broadening the funding through the government may relieve some cost to the families. Setting standards in programs with the level of required training and education nationwide would allow for all programs to be at the same quality of educator level.

Reference:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about/eurydice/documents/098EN.pdf

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020250